Helicopter Eela: Kajol’s Over-protective Mother is a Laugh Riot – In cinema from 12. October

As the actor Kajol turns 44, she launched the trailer of Helicoper Eela, her upcoming film on right parenting.

A comedy-drama on mother-son relationship, the film is a commentary on helicopter parenting, possessive mothers and teenagers struggling for personal space.

Kajol shines as Eela, who was once an aspiring singer and has forgotten herself in being the only parent to her teen son Vivaan, played convincingly by National Award winning actor Riddhi Sen.

On playing a compulsive mother, Kajol said, “Most Indian mothers are like Eela. We are all Eela essentially, we are all obsessed with our children, albeit in varying degrees.

“Everything that Eela does is because she loves her son and he does everything from a place of love too. So there is no one right or wrong in this film,” she added.

The movie seems like an obvious choice for Pradeep Sarkar, who is known for making films with strong female leads (Parineeta, Mardaani). On casting Kajol, he said, “I have been wanting to make a film with her ever since she presented me the award for the best directorial debut (Parineeta) 10 years ago.”

Produced by Ajay Devgn and Jayantilal Gada, the film also stars Neha Dhupia as Padma, a foil to Kajol’s always smothering Eela.

Interestingly, Dhupia’s career comes a full circle with this film. It was Sarkar who first spotted her and cast her in the music video for Euphoria’s 1999 single Sha Na Na Na Na. Moreover, she made her Bollywood debut in 2003 with Ajay Devgn’s Qayamat.

For Devgn, the most important aspect about making Helicopter Eela was getting the core team right. “Once I got all these people on board, I was sure the film was in responsible hands and is going to come out well,” he said.